For Pooja Maurya who is from the rural village community of Kajheri, Punjab, the mayor’s mission from Surrey, B.C. to India was god send.
The 10-year-old enrolled as a Grade 7 student wants to be a teacher but financial constraints had been threatening the dream as her parents struggle with three other children.
Thanks to a generous scholarship from Surrey-based corporate services business Oxus Nexus, Pooja’s dream can now be kept alive.
Last week, Pooja became the first recipient of an annual Endowment For Education set up by Oxus Nexus, which participated in Surrey mayor Dianne Watt’s Mission to India.
Pooja was selected after she submitted an essay on her aspirations to get an education and advanced training in order to help provide for her family.
“I want to congratulate Oxus Nexus - you’ve shown incredible heart here today,” said Watts at a simple ceremony to present the scholarship, which will also cover Pooja’s higher education.
 “I know that in order for any village or city or country to move forward we must educate our children, and this is an important first step towards that for you Poonam, your family and your Village,” said Watts.
Oxus Nexus Managing Director Upkar Tatlay, who has deep roots in the Punjab region, first conceived of the scholarship project after returning to his ancestral village Barhmi in the Punjab State.
Tatlay saw how the schools were in desperate need of funding and how many children, especially females, are unable to thrive and excel at school.
This experience inspired him to create the endowment.
“The Oxus Nexus Endowment for Education was founded on the guiding principle of helping underprivileged students achieve their academic and professional potential through funding, mentoring and guidance” said Tatlay.
“Although my personal connection inspired me to create the scholarship, everyone at Oxus Nexus feels passionately about this program and we look forward to helping many children throughout India in the future.”
The scholarship ceremony was just one of about 100 events held over the last two weeks during the Mayor of Surrey’s Business Mission to India.
“We came on the Mission to see if there were any opportunities for our company, and we’ve already signed one significant deal and likely a second deal before we leave India. It’s been tremendous and well beyond our expectations,” said Tatlay.
In total, 32 delegates participated in the Mission representing 24 companies in the clean energy, education, wood and manufacturing, film and entertainment, life sciences, communications technology and business and finance sectors.
The trip, which included elected officials as well as corporate executives, made visits to  Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar.
 The elected officials from Surrey who participated in the Mission were Mayor Watts, Councillor Linda Hepner, Councillor Barinder Rasode and Councillor Tom Gill.
Given the updates and reaction from the company officials who went on the mission, the business trip has positioned Surrey to reap millions of dollars worth of deals in India.
The four BC lumber companies selected to participate in the Mayor’s Business Mission to India are extremely optimistic about the results.
 “I strongly believe in three years time the Mayor’s efforts, along with those of the companies on this trip, will result in significant volumes of lumber sold to the massive Indian market,” said Don Quan, Chief Financial Officer for Surrey based Mill and Timber.
 “All the importers we visited were projecting increase of lumber use in the Indian marketplace. This trade mission was very timely. Mayor Dianne Watts should be commended on organizing this visit. The timing was impeccable,” said Tom Pallan, President, Pallan Timber. 
The other Surrey based forestry companies on the trip were Coast Clear Wood and Jhajj Lumber.
The Surrey based Wok Box Fresh Asian Kitchen, a four-year-old company is entertaining a number of offers in India as a result of the trip.
 “We’ve met with a slate of companies, each of which could open the door to the enormous Indian market to us…we’ll be leaving India at the end of the week with the outline of a significant deal,” said Wok Box CEO Scott Bender
Watts said that the model developed by Surrey for the Mission of pre-matching companies with highly targeted business matches and providing advance support has yielded significant results.
“Without exception the hard work done over the past several months seems to have resulted in a large percentage of our companies forming significant relationships with organizations in India,” said Watts.
On the education front, Simon Fraser University (SFU) reached a number of key agreements during Mayor’s Business Mission to India, including securing a Letter of Intent (LoI) with a leading Indian university.
The LoI, signed with the university IIT Ropar will see students from the Indian institution travelling to Canada to undertake research at the SFU Surrey campus in the areas of clean energy, mechatronics and computer science.
“Beyond the LoI, the discussions have moved along further, we have initiated discussions around the possibility of offering a joint PhD program between IIT Ropar and SFU,” said Dr. Nimal Rajapaske, Dean of Applied Science at SFU, who was on the trip.
Surrey-based bioLytical Laboratories, a leading life sciences firm participating in the Mission to India secured a number of high-level meetings in multiple cities throughout India, including one that resulted in a multi-hospital deal for the company.
“We’re very pleased that the first of what I believe will be a number of significant deals has been achieved as a result of this Mission, which was extremely timely for bioLytical,” said Robert Mackie, Chairman of bioLytical Laboratories.
Mayor Watts on behalf of the City of Surrey also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the mayor of Jalandhar, Rakesh Rathore in the areas of developing sustainability initiatives and emissions reduction strategies.
More than 27% of Surrey residents are of South Asian descent, according to the city.
Stats Canada said last week that B.C., buoyed by record trade with Asia, saw the value of its domestic exports climb to more than $28.7 billion in 2010, a 15% increase from 2009.
B.C. trade with India in 2010 increased 74% to $135 million, Stats Can said.